How to cool down your house without an AC

How to cool down your house without an AC

Calgary is a funny city to live in. One month we are dealing with fresh piles of snow and the next we are experiencing +25 degree weather that’s starting forest fires. We get three, sometimes four, short months of hot weather and although it’s welcome, it makes your home very uncomfortable. The heat gets trapped inside, causing sleep to be difficult, even if it cools off at night. A lot of Calgary homes don’t have air conditioning systems because of our short summer season, so we need to figure out other ways of cooling down your home without purchasing an AC system.

Obvious tips:

While these tips are usually followed, I figured it’s important to remind you of them before I share the more genius ways of cooling down your rooms.

Closing your blinds (best ones are blackout curtains).

Open doors at night, close them in the day.

Change your sheets to cotton.

Watch what you eat, heavier foods make you feel extremely uncomfortable in the heat.

Bathroom and kitchen fans are on; they pull hot air up and out of your house.

Ice + fan= relief

Before you get your hopes up, this trick doesn’t have the ability of an AC unit to cool down a room completely, but it helps make a room more livable. Whether you use a bowl of ice or an icepack, place it in front of your rotating fan and it will cool down the circulating air.

Ceiling fan’s direction

I did not know this, but in my research, I discovered that it matters what direction your ceiling fan is rotating. In the summer, you want it to be rotating in a counter-clockwise direction because the fan directs the airflow directly down on you, making you feel as though there is a wind chill.

Freeze your sheets

This may seem like a nuisance to do every night, but it’s worth it. Put your top sheet in the freezer and put it back on your bed at night. You might even feel like its okay to cuddle for a bit.

Plant trees

Although the benefits of this only come when the tree is large enough to block a window, it does wonders at keeping the suns heat out of your home. Plus it gives you some privacy.

But if you really want an AC…

I highly suggest waiting for the winter months to purchase a smaller AC system from Kijiji. You may not need it in the winter, but they are sold for way cheaper in those months than the summer months. Price differences can be from $100-$200. It’s worth being patient. Then, when summer comes back around, install that smart purchase in your room and sleep like a baby.